This invention relates to hand trucks of improved construction, and more particularly to what may be termed narrow aisle hand trucks of reduced width which are readily maneuverable in congested aisles and passageways in stores, warehouses and the like, for example. Hand trucks of the general character described, incorporating a pair of horizontally spaced, vertically upstanding side rails connected by laterally extending braces to form a hand truck frame, axle supporting brackets for supporting the axle and pair of wheels which support the frame, and the nose plate structure which is fixed at the lower end of the hand truck frame to provide a forwardly extending load support platform have previously been provided with brackets which have been welded to the laterally inner sides of the hand truck rails. Other hand trucks have incorporated rather bulky brakes, but, to my knowledge, no one has developed a brakeable narrow aisle hand truck, wherein the brake system is so constructed that it does not increase the width of the reduced width hand truck.
It is important to understand that this has been accomplished in the hand truck to be described without the sacrifice of strength and rigidity and while providing the operator with a braking system having a strong braking action which can be readily manually controlled by the hand truck operator.